Arlington home explosion: Police obtained search warrant after suspect fired flares into neighborhood
Search warrant for home of James Yoo was issued just an hour before home explosion in Arlington
As the investigation into the massive home explosion in Arlington, FOX 5 has learned new details after obtaining the search warrant that was issued for the home of James Yoo about an hour before the blast.
ARLINGTON, Va. - As the investigation into the Monday night explosion at an Arlington home continues, FOX 5 has learned new details about what led up to the blast after obtaining a copy of a search warrant filed before the home went up in flames.
The warrant spells out how an officer was sitting at this fire station when he noticed flares going off. It also says flares being fired caused alarm among people playing on a soccer field near the home belonging to 56-year-old James Yoo.
The officer noticed flares coming from outside a window of a home belonging to 56-year-old James Yoo.
Neighbors described Yoo as a recluse and the home had trash bags covering the windows.
Based on all that, police got a warrant to search the home around 7:30 p.m. The warrant was based on a charge of discharging a firearm or missiles near homes.
As police moved towards the home to execute the search less than an hour later, it exploded.
Arlington County Police say that they suspected explosive materials could be in the house because that would be required to launch flares into the air.
Raymond Rowley is a former ATF agent who has familiarity with investigations like these but is not directly involved in this one. He provided some context on the investigation.
Officials said yesterday this would be a long investigation and Rowley says that makes sense given how big the blast was.
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Who is James Yoo? Investigation into suspect behind Arlington home explosion continues
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"They’re going to start their investigation at the seat of the blast in an effort to, at that point, they’ll be taking samples of evidence, they’ll be sending evidence off to the lab to try and determine what may have gone on there," Rowley said.
Rowley added that in similar investigations, the ATF will likely assist local law enforcement as they conduct their investigation.
Neither Arlington County Police nor the fire marshal provided any meaningful updates on Wednesday.
FOX 5 also heard back from the neighbors who live on the other side of the duplex of the home where the explosion occurred. They indicated they didn’t want to say anything publicly.
Their friend Cory Jarvis, who also lives nearby, says they were shaken up and have lost nearly all of their belongings. Jarvis also recounted when he went over to their home to check out a strange noise coming from Yoo’s part of the home.
"I couldn’t say what it was. It was just weird noises. I couldn’t make it out. It was just, he was going non-stop, 24/7 for I don’t know how many days, and he was doing it in the middle of the night when the kids were trying to sleep," Jarvis said, "I can’t even explain it, man. I don’t know if he was running a machine or something, it was weird. This was like months ago, six, seven months ago. He was also, I don’t know, it was weird."
FOX 5 also asked Arlington Police about the non-lethal munitions used to try and get Yoo out of the home Monday.
They say everything they used inside the home is non-combustible, non-explosive and non-flammable.